Who is commenter 'Barry Schwarz'? It turns out he was created by a PR exec hired by a law firm

“Barry Schwarz” of St. Louis saw no reason to fit a Dallas condo tower with louvers to battle glare said to be compromising galleries at the next-door Nasher Sculpture Center.

Louvers won’t work and they would likely rip off in Dallas’ high winds, Schwarz commented on a news site of the Dallas Morning News. Others, such as “Brandon Eley” of the Bronx, also weighed in.

It turns out that Eley and Schwarz were names used by a TV-anchor-turned-public-relations-executive hired by the outside law firm for the new Museum Tower, a 42-story, $200 million, reflective glass condo building, the New York Times reports. The real writer—Mike Snyder—has resigned from the project and from the public relations firm he founded, after the Dallas Morning News identified him.

Strasburger & Price, the law firm that hired Snyder’s firm Ropewalkers, says it was unaware of his tactic. Partner Gary Lawson told the Times in an email that Snyder has accepted responsibility for his actions and resigned. “At no time did I or anyone at my firm know anything about Mike’s use of screen names, and we would never condone it,” Lawson said.